Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The name Detroit Electric has resurfaced once again. Most people around today would not remember that electric cars once roamed the earth.

"Detroit Electric (1907 - 1939) was an automobile brand produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. Anderson had previously been known as the Anderson Carriage Company (until 1911), producing carriages and buggies since 1884. Production of the electric automobile, powered by a rechargeable lead acid battery, began in 1907. For an additional $600.00 an Edison nickel-iron battery was available from 1911 to 1916. The cars were advertised as reliably getting 80 miles (130 km) between battery recharging, although in one test a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles (340.1 km) on a single charge. Top speed was only about 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), but this was considered adequate for driving within city or town limits at the time."

"As improved internal combustion engine automobiles became more common and inexpensive, sales of the Electric dropped in the 1920s but the company stayed in business producing Detroit Electrics until after the stock market crash of 1929. The company filed for bankruptcy, but was acquired and kept in business on a more limited scale for some years building cars in response to special orders. The last Detroit Electric was shipped on February 23, 1939,[citation needed] (though they were still available until 1942),[1] but in its final years the cars were manufactured only in very small numbers."

"Notable people who owned Detroit Electrics cars included Thomas Edison, Charles Proteus Steinmetz and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who had a pair of Model 46 roadsters. Clara Ford, the wife of Henry Ford, drove Detroit Electrics from 1908, when Henry bought her a Model C coupe with a special child seat, through the late teens. Her third car was a 1914 Model 47 brougham." Henry Ford bought an electric car? Amazing.

"7 February 2008 In a joint announcement, the US electric car pioneer and China Youngman Automotive Group have said they are reviving the 100 year-old electric car brand Detroit Electric for an automotive joint venture to bring new vehicle technologies to market by 2009, and beyond that the possibility of bringing new manufacturing and ‘green collar’ jobs to California."

"On September 2, 2008 Detroit Electric announced plans to progressively roll out affordable electric vehicles worldwide by the end of 2009. Proton cars are to be used and tested in order to validate Detroit Electric's technology and explore the potential to collaborate to create a range of pure electric cars. Detroit Electric has to date integrated its electric drive systems into Proton's Lotus Elise and two Proton passenger cars. [4] Detroit Electric hoped to collaborate with Proton to sell electric cars for the Southeast Asian market or to use Proton's existing manufacturing platform to produce electric cars under the Detroit Electric brand. The company planned to roll out 30,000 electric cars by 2010, as he demonstrated their performance at a Proton test circuit in Shah Alam, west of the capital Kuala Lumpur.[5]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Electric

In case you think that the early electric cars were slow and cumbersome read this.

Over 65 miles an hour. Remember that the roads at the time could not handle those kind of speeds. They were mostly dirt roads that turned into mud roads.

Which brings us to the EV1 by GM.

"The EV1 was the first modern production electric vehicle from a major automaker and also the first purpose-built electric car produced by General Motors (GM) in the United States.

Introduced in 1996, The EV1 electric cars were available in California and Arizona in a limited (3 year/30,000 mile) "lease only" agreement.[1]

This was because the EV1 and its leasee were to be participants in a "real-world" engineering evaluation created by GM's Advanced Technology Vehicles group, as well as market analysis and study into the feasibility of producing and marketing a commuter electric vehicle in select U.S. markets.[2][3]

The EV1 was discontinued after 1999, with all examples subsequently removed from the roads in 2003 by General Motors and crushed, except for a select few kept for educational purposes or as museum pieces. The car's discontinuation remains controversial.

In late 2003, GM officially canceled the EV1 program.[15][16] GM stated that it could not sell enough of the cars to make the EV1 profitable. This, combined with the fact that their parts and service infrastructure costs required to maintain the existing EV1's for the state legislated minimum of 15 years, would mean the existing leases would not be renewed and all the cars would have to be returned to GM's possession.

According to GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, his worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric-car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. It didn’t affect profitability, but it did affect image."[17] Wagoner repeated this assertion during an NPR interview after the December 2008 Senate hearings on the U.S. auto industry bailout request.[18]

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Millions of people had a hand in someway with Earth Hour around the world. http://www.earthhourus.org/ Check out the web site for some amazing photos from around the world. Many governments were involved.

But we have along way to go. Using a time analogy, lets see where we are.

The difference between a million and a billion.

A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 31 years.

A million people, millions of people, or, a billion people, billions of people.

We are making strides. But as I looked around my neighborhood and saw people unknowing or uncaring and the city itself not participating. It saddened me.

But the old saying Rome wasn't built in a day applies here. The sponsors were hoping there would not be a drop off. It didn't happen this year. But peer pressure is necessary to bring more into the fold.

Contact your state and local officials. more will think this is a good idea. At worst it saves money, a good idea at any time. At best some will lead and do the right thing.

The eager opening, the unwrapping to see what the editors had deemed the important happenings of the day splashed on the front page.

Grabbing the sport section to see what our heroes had done in the big game.

Reading the op-ed page to see what those idiots had to say.

Laugh at the comics, point out the ones that looked like family, poke one in the ribs to say that must be you, have a good laugh.

The travel section, thinking of going where they had gone, see the sights, where do you want to go.

The self help section, how to, what to do, what to do next, talent to do what they love and show you how.

The entertainment section, the stars of stage and screen, TV, behind the scenes, the glitz, the glamour.

The business section, showing the up and downs of the markets, the local retailer, the mom and pops trying to survive and grow, day to day. How do they do it around the world.

The local news, I didn't know that, seemed like a nice guy, too bad for that family, politics in your town, around the world.

Coupons, ads, whats for sale, how much can we save, gotta have it, can we afford it?

A lot goes on behind the scenes to bring you the newspaper each day. They are not going to survive. Maybe it was the TV that did it, maybe the radio, maybe the computer did them in. Instant updates, bits of news thought to be insignificant fill the pages. We need more, more, more. Can't be satisfied.No more missing west coast scores. Sport updates.

Social networking, what ever happened to, emails replacing hand written letters, thank you cards, Christmas cards. Happy Birthday. Post office might go away. Kids today don't read the newspaper. Grownups not as much as they did. It is not a habit anymore.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

It seems simple enough, give the Earth a rest. What if everyone shut down the lights for one hour? Would people get behind it? This is a basic premise I used in an article I posted on http://www.onedayofpeace.org/Some history:Earth Hour is an annual international event created by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature/World Wildlife Fund), held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007,[1] and achieved worldwide participation in 2008. It is interesting that a nation gearing up to make a difference happens elsewhere in the world first. The leaders embrace a quality idea and the people get behind it. It is all about trust. The right people, the right idea, the right time. A tsunami of participation against all odds.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Can Congress really pass a law to punish AIG for using the money for bonuses?Does the constitution allow expo facto laws?In a word no.

Ex Post Facto' laws are specifically prohibited by the US Constitution.Explanation: Ex post facto Latin for "from a thing done afterward." Ex post facto is most typically used to refer to a law that applies retroactively, thereby criminalizing conduct that was legal when originally performed. Two clauses in the US Constitution prohibit ex post facto laws: Art 1, § 9 and Art. 1 § 10.http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_the_constitution_allow_expo_facto_laws

The cries of retribution that has swept across the land will soon subside when people realize laws can't be changed after the fact to get even or to right a wrong. The horse has run away. Now we build a barn with a strong lock?

A billion dollars ago was late yesterday afternoon at the U.S. Treasury.

A trillion dollars is so large a number that only politicians can use the term in conversation... probably because they seldom think about what they are really saying. I've read that mathematicians do not even use the term trillion!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Taking advantage of the Florida homestead exemption, she filed with the state to shield her home from creditors. All this was done before her husbands arrest. Was this part of a plan? Maybe. Her husband has said he worked alone.

Here is some background on Florida's homestead exemption which came about at the beginning of Florida's statehood. It was designed as an aid to get people to move into the state, families, and not lose their home to say , a gambling debt.

"Section 4 lays out Florida's homestead exemption provision, considered one of the most protective in the nation for resident property owners. The provision exempts from forced sale (except to pay taxes, mortgages, or mechanic's lien) 160 acres of contiguous land plus all improvements (if located outside a municipality) or 1/2 acre of contiguous land plus all improvements (if located inside a municipality), regardless of the property's value, plus personal property up to US$1,000. Upon the owner's death, the exemptions extend to the surviving spouse or to the heirs.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Constitution"As much as it hurts to say, she will most likely get away with it. The law is meant to protect the average person and it does stick in the craw when a person of her stature and notoriety uses the law to her advantage. But remember, the law works to your advantage too.

Remember the often repeated quote from Bush, "Stay the Course", a hard line approach that was viewed as the only way to handle negotiations with our enemies. The Axis of Evil!

When put in a corner, sometimes a country will feel they must act just like the way they are being described. Our steel glove covering a steel hand diplomatic style did not work with Korea, Iran, Pakistan, India, and so on and so on.

They must get respect. One way is nuclear. Now Iraq did not have the bomb, so we invaded them. Other countries took notice and developed their own. So there! Stay away.

We can't be everywhere, can't fight everywhere. We are not the world's policeman. Never claimed to be. We are more like the gang that can't shoot straight. We have limited resources, which is shown to the world time and again.

History will show the winners and losers. I fear history will not be kind to the downfall of the United States.

Please read the review of "The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power", by David E. Sanger

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Oh, Oh, one knows what happens when there is a margin call in the stock market. You have to come up with the money. When the bank said you can't meet your loan requirement, they call in the loan. In full.

How about when a country worries about 1 trillion dollars they have invested in another country? They call in their loan, in this case bonds, treasuries, the boring stuff. If we have to pay them off, our economy would grind to a halt.

"BEIJING — The Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, spoke in unusually blunt terms on Friday about the “safety” of China’s $1 trillion investment in American government debt, the world’s largest such holding, and urged the Obama administration to offer assurances that the securities would maintain their value.""He stopped short of any threat to reduce purchases of American bonds, much less sell any of them, underscoring the two countries’ mutual dependency."Some specialists say that China’s investment in American debt is now so vast that it would be impossible for Beijing to unload its Treasury securities without flooding the market and driving down their price."

If we think like Wall Street, then our country is too big to fail. China is in too deep, but you would think that they are looking at other options. Let us hope that they stay with us. In time we will right our economic ship.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Please click on title for more information or go to the link at the bottom of the page.

When your stock portfolio value can disappear in minutes, when your house value continues to plummet, when blue chip companies implode on the way to bankruptcy. the mantra is repeated Cash is king!

But is it worth anything?

The gold standard is not currently used by any government, having been replaced completely by fiat currency.

Fiat currency (fiat money) is money that exists because an authority or custom declares it to be money. (From the Latin fiat, which means "let it be done"). It achieves value because a government requires it in payment of taxes and says it can be used to pay debt or buy goods and services and because people trust that the value of the currency will be reasonably stable.[1]

What happened to the gold standard? When did it start? What does it mean?Under a gold standard, paper notes are convertible into pre-set, fixed quantities of gold.

If a country holds enough gold to back up all the paper money it is considered a 100% standard. Problem is there is not that much gold in the world.

How much gold is there? Allowing for production from Egyptian times to now and put in in one place, you could build the Washington Monument, except it would only be a third of the size.

Then what determines worth? Basically if the government backs it and has the resources, the money will be stable.

Assuming a gold price of US$1,000 per ounce, or $32,500 per kilogram, the total value of all the gold ever mined would be around $4.5 trillion. This is less than the value of circulating money in the U.S. alone, where more than $7.6 trillion is in circulation or in deposit (although international banking currently practises fractional reserves).[15]

Does that mean that the gold in FT. Knox is meaningless? As you can see, there isn't enough there to make a that big difference.

Add in inflation and life gets confusing. plus the miracle of compounding interest which lets your savings grow albeit slowly while trying to outpace the devaluing dollar.

What does it all mean? It's all that we have unless we would go back to the barter system and find out how good life is as we know it.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Are we entering the "Waterworld" part of the future? A day when the land mass disappears? Maybe sooner than we thought.

The problem of rising waters is a different version of the example of a frog that is put into a boiling pot of water, the frog jumps right out. A frog then is put into a cold pot of water and the heat is turned up. The frog doesn't realize what'shappening and is slowly cooked to death. We are the frog. And the heat is on.

An excerpt follows from the U.N. report.

"In March 2007, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that global warming, if unchecked, would lead to a devastating amalgam of floods, drought, disease and extreme weather by the century end.The world's oceans would creep up 18 to 59 centimetres (7 to 23 inches), enough to wipe out several small island nations, and wreak havoc for tens of millions living in low-lying deltas in east Asia, the Indian subcontinent and Africa."

It further states that current reports figure the water rise to effect over 600 million people. Glaciers melting, permafrost thawing are two major cause and effects that will affect many in their lifetime.Oh Oh.

This is serious stuff. We must do more than just rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic. It all counts and it counts now.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Cry, complain, take the olive branch that was extended, strike back with it and declare war with little care for a suffering, fearful nation. Don't save the economy, grind it into the ground.

Throw up smoke screens, blame an administration that took over on Jan. 29 for the self-destruction of the markets. Blame the Dems for the breakdown of the regulation of said markets, even though the GOP had total control of everything for 8 years and controlled the congress before that, whew, they must tired.

You can hear them gasping for breath. This had better work before the next election. We have to show them we didn't lose, please elect us one more time.

Just maybe, the plan, the effort will work despite the obstruction attempt. It won't please everyone. It means lots of change. People in power hate change. People who were in power really,really hate change.

If when you were elected to office, you swore to act responsible for your constituents, if you think by letting your voters lose their jobs, lose their homes, then you are acting responsible.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

One can look at the state of the economy and compare it to a plot of land that you decide to turn into a garden. You dig it up and and plant some seeds, nurture it with water, sunlight, fertilizer, and hope.

You think you know what will grow but results won't be known until the end of the season. All you know for sure is nothing looks the same as when you started.

One thing for sure, things won't be the same. Jobs have always come and gone. New ideas, inventions, products, needs, heck we don't even know what we need as of yet. Change can be painful, and personal.

Where you are in life directly affects how well one can roll with the punches. Age of course, money cushion, time frames all count.

Change for the better takes time. It can leave one battered and bruised. One needs to hang in there and learn from current events.

One word from the 1967 movie the Graduate (with Dustin Hoffman) "Plastics" a product that was to change the world and bring us to a brink of pollution and destruction of our planet today.

Plastic however has been around for a long time, like many things, longer than you think.

"The First Man-Made Plastic - Parkesine The first man-made plastic was created by Alexander Parkes who publicly demonstrated it at the 1862 Great International Exhibition in London. The material called Parkesine was an organic material derived from cellulose that once heated could be molded, and retained its shape when cooled." http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/plastics.htm

So what you say, it's all a bunch of hype, I don't believe its as bad as they say. Damn treehuggers.

Its worse. Plastic has been around for over 14o years. Plastic doesn't decompose. It can breakdown. With disastrous results. The world is huge, vast, it is tough to get a handle on how large the Earth is. But as mankind as expanded, so has its garbage. Plastic garbage has the need to come together and it has.

In our oceans. For a leading indicator one needs to look at the Pacific ocean, an area 800 miles north of the Hawaiian islands, an area twice the size of Texas. A Leviathan monster. (Leviathan-a sea monster without a head or tail, just an enormous body that goes on forever.) It is covered in plastic collecting in a pool gravitating to each other almost magnetically.

The following article I found on Best Life about a year ago should shock, infuriate, sicken and sadden you.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

We all realize we are in fast moving times. If you aren't aware , trust me on this one. Technology travels at the speed of light it would seem. But world events seem to put things in hyper drive.

Sometimes it takes a well crafted video to give a view of the future.

On You Tube their exists a video called "Did you know; Shift Happens- Globalization; Information Age". It has been watched over 4,000,000 times. There are many different versions, but this one seems to give out the most information.

It will take 6 minutes and 6 seconds out of your day. Be prepared to be amazed.

In the movie The Godfather, the famous quote "For justice you must see Don Corleone" was said when the system failed one of the local citizens.

"Three years ago, the Bush administration switched long standing Food and Drug Administration policy and announced that federal approval of a drug "preempts" or bars lawsuits in state courts."

Drug makers are now once again responsible for the drugs that they sell. Warning must be issued and safety standards must be followed and the public well being is brought to the forefront.

Sometimes people moan about frivolous lawsuits and the lack of substantive merit. It is makes for great talk around the water cooler.

But when the application of a drug causes one to lose an arm as in the case of Diana Levin, a major problem when the drug entered an artery and was known to have caused limb loss in 20 other people, isn't compensation warranted?

Someone must take the stand of being an advocate for the people. Car makers have recalls all the time when a car part could or will fail and cause bodily harm. Could the possibility of a lawsuit cause them to care? Perhaps.

"Lawsuits not only compensate injured individuals, but they "uncover drug hazards and provide incentives for drug manufactures to disclose safety risks promptly."

Lawsuits are not a remedy for bad actions knowingly made, but for unknown or unforeseen consequences already known by the manufacturer.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The newest and latest revelation of steroid use by A-Rod and others makes me wonder not only when will it end but when did it start. The half baked, not heartfelt apology to satisfy the fans and move on that is the standard nowadays, doesn't pass the smell taste. Was it like that when I was a kid? Were the hopes and dreams I had as a youth shrouded in the mystery of drugs, unknown to me, helping my hero to be a hero?

Watching baseball highlights before school, sneaking a radio into class, rushing home to watch a World Series game after school, was it all a myth, a mirage? What made a sports star a star? We thought someone blessed with a load of talent, grit and determination, extra effort, playing through pain, aches, bleeding, bruised, bloodied, giving one's all, we thought that was what it took to be a star.

Performance enhancements. We thought that included the weight room, extra laps, running up hills, extra practice, studying technique, trying to be like the best. Be all you can be!

In reality we have entered an era of disillusionment. Everything is suspect. When a player has a great year, a career year, when everything comes together, when they win it all, one wonders how. The whispers won't stop. Code of silence. What goes on in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse. Look the other way. Ignorance is bliss.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

If you have seen the movie V for Vendetta(highly recommended), you would recognize in the movie some of the ideology of the last eight years. See link at the end of the article.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not fond of the Republican Party. But that would be an afterthought compared to the antics of Rush Limbaugh. The Republican Party may rue the day that it embraced the radio commentator/comedian as the front man in the continuing battle against the Democrats. He now feels he is in control of the party. He is the puppet master, they are the puppets. His attacks on certain members for speaking out and defying him borders on comedy. Their weakness, like anyone else,is they want to keep their jobs. Rush's strength, he makes 40 million a year. Is that what the Republicans want, to be known synonymously with Rush?

Or is he just filling a vacuum of leadership? No disagrees that Rush has a knack with connecting with his listeners, for speaking for part of the population. He is smart, resourceful and can speak on a talking point forever. But he works from a bully pulpit which is not helpful to the overall population. You may intensely dislike the current administration and all it stands for, but they are what we have for now, and we have to forge ahead and get through this financial debacle.

Good luck ditto heads.

The following is an excerpt from, Wikepedia:Roger Allam as Lewis Prothero: Lewis Prothero, "The Voice of London", is a mouthpiece for the Norsefire government. He was the former Commander of the Larkhill facility. He presented a show on the BTN. He was killed by V. He has been viewed as a parody of American right-wing pundits such as Bill O'Reilly, Morten Downey and Rush Limbaugh by critics and commentators.[9][12]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/quotes

Monday, March 2, 2009

The nation of investors, no, the world of investors no longer trusts the financial markets. It apparent in the flight from Wall Street and the effect of people putting what's left of their money not in their mattresses, but under them.

People were willing to concede the enormous salaries and bonuses because they are the movers and shakers and understood how to build markets and wealth and industry and so on and so on.

No more. The fraud and deception that has been foisted the public has decimated their chance to share in the wealth, live comfortably in retirement and live the dream of doing better than their parents.

Simply put, they don't believe you Mr. Banker, Financial Guy, Elected official, Insurance man. Their trust has been abused and like a cat and a hot stove, they won't want to get close for a long time.

From the movie "Wall Street" the line "Greed is good" is a truism that all will agree makes the world go round. However, there must be some limits for the greater good. Don't think so? Read tomorrow's headlines.

Oh Boy,
It seemed like last year when the government passed on helping Lehman because it was a waste of time, and instead deciding AIG was more important. They were too big to fail.
Wait, it was last year. Now they need more, much more. This bailout seems to have been a mistake, but we won't know for sure if a domino effect would have followed and collapsed the market. Better safe than sorry, maybe. A comparison would be the scare of 2000 computer glitch where companies spent millions and billions to make sure nothing would shut down.

However, this smells like a desperate attempt by a gambler to double down and walk away a winner. The odds are against it.

Latest results show AIG showed a loss of 60 billion dollars. The following is an excerpt from MSNBC to try to make sense of it all.

Once one of the world's largest insurers, AIG has already received $150 billion in loans from the government. In return the government has taken an 80 percent stake in the insurer.
That latest AIG rescue comes just days after the government agreed to boost its equity stake in Citigroup to as much as 36 percent in a bid to bolster another financial giant that taxpayers had already poured billions of dollars into AIG.

Under the new deal, the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve would provide about $30 billion in fresh capital to the insurer, lower the interest rate on a $60 billion loan and ease the terms of a $40 billion preferred share investment.
The $30 billion would not be injected immediately but would be provided as a standby line of equity that AIG could tap as its losses mount, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
AIG will repay much of the $40 billion it owes the Federal Reserve with equity stakes in two AIG overseas units — Asia-based American International Assurance and American Life Insurance, which operates in 50 countries. Repayment was originally supposed to be made in cash with interest, the Journal reported.
AIG will place foreign units of AIA and Alico into trusts, with the Fedholding preferred shares in the trusts, a source told CNBC. AIG and the US haven't agreed on a valuation for AIA or Alico, the source said. AIG plans eventually to take AIA and Alico public when market conditions improve, this person said.
In addition, AIG will securitize $5 billion to $10 billion in debt, backed with life insurance assets, to further reduce its debt burden.
And the $60 billion Federal Reserve credit facility AIG received in November will be reduced to $25 billion. The interest rate on that loan will drop to the three-month Libor rate, reducing the interest burden by1 billion annually, a source told CNBC. AIG has already drawn down about $38 billion of those funds.
An AIG spokesman was not available for comment. The F$ederal Reserve Bank of New York, which is handling the government loan, did not return requests for comment Sunday afternoon. Treasury Department spokesman Isaac Baker declined to comment.
AIG has been forced to seek more help because of a combination of factors including the recession and its falling stock price, now well under $1.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

It must be financial Armageddon time. When the man most claim as the saviest investor of all time is losing money, what does that mean for the future of the rest of us?

Buffett said"Our country has faced far worse travails in the past," he said. "Without fail, however, we've overcome them." He declined to draw a correlation between stocks and economics, saying that while he was certain the economy would be "in shambles for 2009" that "does not tell us whether the stock market will rise or fall."

Mr. Buffett conceded in his letter that he "did some dumb things" in the past year, such as boosting the company's holdings of the oil giant ConocoPhillips when oil prices were near their peak. Since then, oil prices have tumbled and shares of ConocoPhillips and many other energy outfits are down sharply.

He also said he made a $244 million investment in two Irish banks "that appeared cheap." At year-end, Berkshire wrote the holdings down to their market value of $27 million, an 89% loss on the investment.

Do you feel better now?

The letter also provided new details on some moves Mr. Buffett made in late 2008 as the credit crisis worsened. Berkshire invested $14.5 billion in fixed-income securities from companies such as General Electric Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. To fund the purchases, the letter says, he sold part of his holdings in ConocoPhillips, Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble Co.--"holdings I would have preferred to keep," he said.

He sold quality stocks to buy what were good stocks, a method he has used for years of bottom feeding on quality stocks that had taken a tumble. One should not bet against Mr. Buffett to once again rise to the top. But he is not getting any younger.